Accountable Development Works (ADW) has worked in Sierra Leone since 2005, and has grown to include projects across the African continent. We maintain experienced international staff as well as a dedicated base of volunteers including students, experienced development professionals, youth, and everyone in-between. Our organization also involves a diverse group of local and global experts, whose profiles you can see below.
Maureen Ferley, Chair
Maureen is an educator with a commitment to social justice. She has taught multi-age groups in various demographics throughout Manitoba for over twenty years. She has been involved with Sierra Leone Action Mission since its inception. She is account manager for the Pearl Dudek Centre for Children in Koidu, Sierra Leone and is on the planning team for the Koidu high school project currently in development.
Leigh McClarty, Secretary
Leigh McClarty is a Postdoctoral Fellow with the Institute for Global Public Health at the University of Manitoba where she focuses on strategies to optimize programming for folks who experience persistent inequities in access to and uptake of safe, comprehensive, and inclusive health services. Leigh is interested in issues around health equity in the Global South, specifically through the development of sustainable, community-led initiatives that promote health using culturally safe and context-specific approaches. She was also co-director and treasurer of Kwagala Foundation (2006-2021). Although in short supply, in her free time, Leigh enjoys spreading benign propaganda about the beauty and hidden treasures in and around Winnipeg to anyone who will listen.
Bryan Dudek, Treasurer
Bryan has an accounting and commercial banking background having worked in both Toronto and Winnipeg. Over his 30+ year career, he has had considerable exposure to a wide variety of service, retail and manufacturing businesses as both a lender and owner/operator. He has been involved directly or indirectly with Accountable Development Works since its inception, principally in a finance and administrative capacity, and recently joined the Board as Treasurer.
Dean Jonasson
Dean worked 10 years in the field of inclusion for persons with disabilities and 25 years as a teacher/case manager in the Winnipeg education system. During that time he also served on the executive of the Manitoba Council for Exceptional Children. Dean is currently a Faculty Supervisor for the University of Winnipeg as well as the Chair for the Sierra Leone Action Mission, a project within the umbrella of ADW.
Janet P Schmidt
Janet is the chair of the Ubuntu Clinique Project in Burundi. She is a mediator, facilitator, and trainer focusing on addressing conflict in the workplace. In 1996-1999 Janet Schmidt developed a Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation Certificate and Diploma at the invitation of the Mindolo Ecumenical Foundation in Kitwe Zambia. She has worked in 15 countries and has trained people from around the world.
Elizabeth Schellenberg
Born and raised in Winnipeg, Elizabeth has always been interested in international development, with a focus on health and gender equity, and social justice. She has been on the board of Mukanzo Orphanage since it’s inception in 2016, co-ordinating numerous fundraisers since 2013 with the focus of spreading information about Mukanzo orphanage across Canada. Elizabeth worked as a Physiotherapist for more than 24 years in public healthcare, but for the last 5 years has been involved in a variety of endeavours including business, case management, hosting international students, and international development. Elizabeth is married to Andrew, and is mom to Luke (age 22), Madeline (age 19), and Ginger Bernadette (Goldendoodle, age 4).
Bruno Baerg
Bruno is the chairperson and executive director of Education Congo Canada, an ADW project that supports higher education in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Bruno grew up as an TCK (Transcultural kid) in the DRC, Manitoba and Ontario. He has been involved in the international development sector for 35+ years with 15 years’ experience living and working in southern Africa. He holds a MSc in International Development studies. He is an organizational and leadership coaching consultant. Leisure pursuits include photography, fly fishing, reading and enjoying his grandchildren.
Johndavid Pankratz
Johndavid is the chair of the Congo’s Children committee, supporting Georgette Nyembo’s work educating street children in Kinshasa, DR Congo. He has managed international development programs in several countries; he and his wife Janet lived and worked in Zambia for three years, and he met Georgette while monitoring elections in DR Congo in 2006. An accountant by profession, he has taken a significant interest in how people experiencing poverty interact with money and what that means for how we manage our financial relationships with them: to mitigate the inherent power structures this creates, promote transparency, and avoid placing them in untenable positions with their families and neighbours who do not have access to Western resources.
